IF YOU GO

The historic site in Perrysburg, Ohio, celebrates its bicentennial this year. The fort played
a key role in the War of 1812.

GETTING THERE

The site is southwest of Toledo on Ohio 65 near U.S. 20. Allow about 2 1/2 hours for the
drive from Columbus.

VISITING THE SITE

The fort and museum are open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and noon
to 5 p.m. Sundays. The site is closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Admission is $8, $7 for those 60 and older and $4 for students. Ohio Historical Society
members and children 5 and younger are admitted free.

MARKING THE BICENTENNIAL

Many special activities will take place at the fort on Friday through next Sunday, including
an artillery “duel” across the Maumee River at 8 p.m. Friday; a Regency-era fashion show at 10 a.m.
Saturday; and a musket demonstration at 3 p.m. Sunday.

For more information, including a complete schedule of events, call 1-800-283-8916 or visit
www.fortmeigs.org.

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PERRYSBURG, Ohio — As far as Ohioans are concerned, the conflict between the Americans and
British at the beginning of the 19th century should really be called the War of 1813.

This year marks the bicentennial of two major Buckeye State events in the confusingly named War
of 1812.

The 200th anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie near South Bass Island, perhaps the most famous
and most important naval battle of the war, will be commemorated in late summer at Put-in-Bay.

But another clash, which was also vital to the American war effort but much less celebrated,
took place just a few months earlier and 40 miles to the west near present-day Perrysburg.

There, at Fort Meigs, future President William Henry Harrison and a force of more than 1,200
Americans repulsed a British and American Indian attack and survived a siege from April 28 to May
5, 1813 — and another later in the summer — allowing American forces to move to the north toward
Fort Detroit and an important victory in Canada at the Battle of the Thames.

Fort Meigs was dismantled soon after the battles of 1813, but the site was acquired by the Ohio
Historical Society in the 1950s and a replica structure — the largest wooden-walled fort in the
country — was reconstructed in 1974. The fort has been renovated since then and a new museum was
built in 2003 as part of Ohio’s statehood bicentennial commemoration.

I visited the fort on a raw April day, when the cold wind and sopping wet ground let me easily
empathize with the American officers who called the fort “the most disagreeable encampment” they
ever experienced.

“Our camp is overwhelmed with mud and water,” noted Capt. Daniel Cushing in March 1813, a month
in which two to three men were dying every day at the fort due to disease or the elements.

Standing on the artillery batteries on banks high above the Maumee River rapids about 15 miles
from Lake Erie, a visitor can see why the fort was so strategically important.

The fort was built on a 10-acre site from more than 3,500 trees, denuding a large chunk of the
surrounding forest but clearing the line of sight so as to make it easier to espy and fire upon an
advancing enemy. The reconstructed fort closely matches the footprint of the original and includes
seven large wooden blockhouses and a quartermaster’s building.

Several of the blockhouses contain displays about various aspects of the fort, including its
construction, the daily life of its soldiers and how it was successfully defended.

One especially poignant audio exhibit plays the music of camp life. Visitors can choose from
more than a dozen fife-and-drum calls — from the morning assembly call and a lively tune indicating
that it was time for soldiers to gather wood for fires to the mournful
Roslin Castle, played at funerals, of which there were many. Besides those who died of
illness, American forces suffered more than 300 casualties during the campaign.

Next weekend will mark the biggest celebration of the Fort Meigs bicentennial, with some
terrific special events scheduled Friday through Sunday. The events will include a nighttime
artillery “duel” across the Maumee River, a tasting of two new War of 1812 commemorative beers
brewed by the Maumee Bay Brewing Co., lectures, a living-history encampment and historical
interpreters.

Other events are scheduled throughout the year. But history lovers will find a trip to Fort
Meigs well-warranted even if they can’t make one of the bicentennial events.

The site’s museum and visitors center tells the history of the fort and the war through an
orientation film and 3,000 square feet of exhibits.

Quotes from participants on both sides of the conflict are used throughout the museum, giving
the displays an air of authenticity and immediacy.

Visitors will see many War of 1812 artifacts, a number of which have never been displayed
before. Items recovered by archaeologists at the site include tin canteens, a soldier’s playing die
made of bone, and the iron shoes and tack of the only buried horses ever recovered from a War of
1812 site.

From the fort itself are displays of hardware such as iron door handles, latches and padlocks,
plus a myriad of construction tools such as chisels, mattocks, spades and axes used to construct
and maintain the huge structure.

The museum also includes displays on the conflicts that led up to the War of 1812, including the
many settler-vs.-Indian battles fought in the Ohio country before and just after the Revolutionary
War. Among the most interesting items are spurs belonging to Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne, who led
American forces at the nearby Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1795, and the portion of a shell and
buckskin wampum belt presented to Wayne by Indian leader Little Turtle during negotiations that led
to the Treaty of Greenville.